The House-passed version of this year’s Farm Bill contains a dangerous provision from Rep. Steve King (R-IA) that would gut many existing state and local laws protecting animals and public safety, including laws that address farm animal confinement, puppy mills, horse slaughter and shark finning. The San Francisco SPCA asks that concerned citizens please contact their representatives[2] now to urge them to strike the King Amendment (Sec. 11312) from the House-passed Farm Bill (H.R. 2642).

Among other serious implications, the King Amendment would neutralize California’s Proposition 2, a modest measure that will, when enacted in 2015, give farm animals enough room to stand up, lie down, turn around and fully extend their limbs.

Two years after Prop 2’s overwhelming passage by California voters, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law requiring that all eggs sold in California be produced under Prop 2’s standards, regardless of origin. This protection prevents out-of-state farmers, with lower animal welfare standards and production costs, from undercutting California’s egg farmers with cheap, inhumanely raised eggs.

The King Amendment, however, would make it illegal for California to restrict in its own consumer markets the sale of eggs from battery cages in big-ag states like Iowa. Not surprisingly, King’s efforts would protect agribusiness profits in his home state, at the expense of California’s farmers and farm animals, and against the clear will of California's voters.

To learn more about the ways in which the King Amendment threatens animal welfare laws, food safety, environmental requirements and labor standards, please read this King Amendment fact sheet[3].